Bendel’s Walking Mural

During the summer of 2004, I assisted Don Bendel in the creation of a ceramic walking mural for the Thomas Elementary school in Flagstaff, Arizona. Over 2 tons of clay was mixed and put into two 4 x 36 foot sections at a depth of about 2 inches. When the clay was ready to be walked on, over 600 students from the ages of 5 – 13 walked through the mural, leaving their footprints layered in the wet clay. During the drying stage, we cut the mural into 304 tiles and transported them to the Tozan Noborigama, a large wood fire kiln on the Northern Arizona University campus, where we then wood fired them for 7 days to about 2,350 degrees fahrenheit. We then transported the tiles back to the school and reassembled them back to its original layout according to a numbering system we added to the tiles when we cut the mural apart. Thomas Elementary hired a contractor to install the 72 foot long mural in a prominent spot on the front face of the school, clearly visible from the street.